Island



(No Model.)

W. L. COOP. GYMNASIUM WALKING TRACK.

No. 437,887. Patented Oct. 7, 1890.

WIINESEEE. JNVE'NTUEI fax/ W% UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

WILLIAM L. COOP, OF PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND.

GYM NASIUM WALKING-TRACK.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 437,887, dated October 7, 1890.

Application filed May 15, 1890. Serial No. 351,923. (No model.)

To aZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, WILLIAM L. Coor, of the city of Providence, county of Providence, and State of Rhode Island, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Gymnasium alking-Tracks; and I hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification.

The permanent tracks laid in gymnasiums and used for exercise in walking consisting, usually, of two straight stretches parallel to each other connected by semicircular ends, in walking at a rapid pace the speed on tracks as heretofore constructed is diminished and the person walking is subjected to greater strain on the muscles of his system while walking on the curved portion of the track than he is on the straight portion. The track as heretofore constructed was raised on the outer edge of the curve, so as to form an inclined plane higher on the outer than on the inner edge of the track. Such inclined surface was, however, of straight cross-section, and a fast walker was carried by the momentum of his body to the outer edge of the curve, thus walking a longer distance and having to strain his body to keep 011 the track.

The present invention consists in giving the semicircular or curved end portion of the track a curved surface, as will be more fully set forth hereinafter.

Figure 1 is a plan view of the curved end of the track. Fig. 2 is a sectional view of the same.

The numbers 4: indicate the straight portion of the track, ending at the lines a a. (Shown in Fig. 1.) Up to these lines a a, the straight portion of the track is level, the line marked a in Fig. 2 indicating the surface of the track at a a. From these lines a. a the curved portion of the track to the lines I) Z) is gradually curved, so that at the lines Z) Z) the surface of the track'is concaved and the outer edge raised, as is shown by the line b in Fig. 2. This raising of the outer edge and curving or concaving of the surface of the track gradually increases until at the lines o c in Fig. 1 the cross-section of the track is shown by the section 0 in Fig. 2, and this section is continued from the line 0 c on one side to the line 0 c on the other side of the end curve.

The track is usually covered by a layer of felt, which is covered by a sheet of canvas, both firmly secured to the track. The concaved surface on the end curves of the track secures a firm hold for the feet of the walker in turning the curve, for while the outer edge is not raised any higher than it was in the old track the angle of inclination of the surface on the outer portion of the track is much greater, thus giving the feet a better hold and inclining the body more inward than heretofore when rapidly walking over the end curve. The pedestrian walking in the middle of the track finds a firm foothold as-he turns the end curve, and is enabled to turn the curved end without walking outside the center and with less fatigue and muscular strain.

Having thus described my invention, I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patcut- 1. A gymnasium walkingtrack having the surface at the curve concaved, as described.

2. A walking-track in which the straight portions of the track have a level cross-sectional surface and the curve a graduallyincreasing conoaved cross-section, the outer edge of the surface being gradually raised, constructed to form a concaved walking-surface in the curve, as described.

WVILLIAM L. COOP.

\Vitnesses:

J. A. MILLER, J12, M. F. BLIGH. 

